This invention relates to compositions and methods related to the genetic transformation of flax.
The ability to genetically engineer flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) to improve its performance and stress-resistance or to enhance alternative uses is of great importance.
Genetic transformation and recovery of fertile flax plants using Agrobacterium have been reported previously (Jordan and McHughen, Plant Cell Rep. 7:281-284, 1988). However, transformation of flax using Agrobacterium has serious limitations, including low transformation efficiency, a high incidence of somaclonal variation resulting from in vitro culture of callus tissue, a high incidence of chimeric regenerants (Dong and McHughen, Plant Sci. 88:61-71, 1993a; Dong and McHughen, Plant Sci. 91:139-148, 1993b), and a high incidence of escape shoots, i.e., shoots arising from non-transformed cells protected from selection by transformed cells (McHughen and Jordan, Plant Cell. Rep. 7:611-614, 1989).